Does This Mean That I Am Actually Allergic To Orange?

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Hi guys, I've been juicing my own orange juice lately. The thing is though, sometimes the juice will get into my wrist... I would found out in a few mins that my skin where some of the juice has spilled will develop some rash.

Is this normal?

If not, what other alternatives can I go for as orange juice is a staple in ray peat's diet.

There are some immunologists who would firmly state that a true allergy can only be had to proteins, the rest perhaps being a 'chemical sensitivity.' This makes sense in a way, because antibodies are most readily constructed towards proteins (other molecules being almost too small). The antibody is itself a protein, and it can match alternate amino acids in a 1∶1 correspondence. I haven't read too much about their formation, but I'd imagine that their hydrophobic regions would overlay (i.e. valine, leuice, isolecuine, phenylalanine) as well as the hydrophilic regions—which can further be made adherent by pairing lysine with aspartate, arginine with glutamate, serine against histidine, etc. As far as I know, the two things most characteristic to oranges are their high putrescine content and their terpene content. I don't think it's too unusual to react to terpenes, and perhaps this is what's behind 'orange sensitivity.'

Cardullo, Alice C. "Allergic contact dermatitis resulting from sensitivity to citrus peel, geraniol, and citral." Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (1989)​

'A bartender with hand dermatitis had allergic contact sensitivity to the skin of lemon, lime, and orange but not to their juices. Although most reported cases of citrus peel allergy are due to d-limonene, for our patient, reactions to patch tests for geraniol and citral, two minor components of citrus peel oil, were positive, whereas those for d-limonene were negative. Contact allergy to citrus peel oil should be considered in patients with hand dermatitis who are occupationally exposed to citrus fruits.' ―Cardullo

'Chemical composition of citrus peel oils varies with fruit type, but the major component in all peel oils is d-limonene. This agent has been reported to be the major cause of both irritant and allergic contact dermatitis related to citrus fruit contact.' ―Cardullo

'Results showed the patient was sensitive to citral, but not to d-limonene.' ―Cardullo

'To distinguish peel oil and juice sensitivity, the exocarp (colored outer peel) must be carefully removed without juice contamination; likewise, the juice used must not be contaminated by peel oil.' ―Cardullo

'Once the patient stopped working as a bartender and avoided skin contact with citrus peel, her dermatitis resolved.' ―Cardullo

​

Limonene could be the terpene in oranges that William Koch was referring to, as well as the oxidized open chain forms citral and geraniol. The patient had reacted to both citral and geraniol in a patch test, but not limonene.

If not, what other alternatives can I go for as orange juice is a staple in ray peat's diet.

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You are not the only person here who has trouble with OJ. Not everyone here makes OJ a staple. You can try other fruits and see what agrees with you. As above, apple can work for some. Or if fruits/juice don't work so well or in large quantities for you you could try roots and tubers. Or other veges. They don't all have quite the same nutritional profile, so probably be good to take a look at overall diet and see how it looks in terms of supplying minerals etc.

Darn... but I heard that apples aren't safe... like they need to be organic for it to be safe and those are so expensive.

Like what Travis said... could it be that I am just allergic to the peel? I use my right hand to peel into the orange and so there's more juice on my right hand and it would often crawl into my wrist. Is it possible that the combo of peel and juice is what had made me react.

I tried to put some orange juice on my left wrist to see if something would react but nothing... I am now thinking that the rash probably only happens when I am "making" the orange juice.

Darn... but I heard that apples aren't safe... like they need to be organic for it to be safe and those are so expensive.

Like what Travis said... could it be that I am just allergic to the peel? I use my right hand to peel into the orange and so there's more juice on my right hand and it would often crawl into my wrist. Is it possible that the combo of peel and juice is what had made me react.

I tried to put some orange juice on my left wrist to see if something would react but nothing... I am now thinking that the rash probably only happens when I am "making" the orange juice.

Click to expand...

I think it could just be the peel oils.. .

That limolene has interesting solvent effects, and often sold to remove that 'gummy' stuff which remains after removing a sticker or a decal. I have straight orange oil for this in the past and it works great—better than anything.

But it does appear as though between ~2.2–3.2% of all people react to it topically (Cardullo, 1989), so.. . Perhaps you can experiment, keep your eye on the peel oils, and see what happens.. . I like orange juice but not as much as pineapple juice, and the place where I go has pineapples cheaper than oranges (by weight.) When I juice, I tend to reach for those red grapefruits; these seem to have more juice density making the juicing process go quicker (and less cutting and twisting per ounce).

Nonetheless, orange juice is really good and there could be a way you can still make it. Perhaps you could get some nitrile gloves, make juice, extrude the peel, and then do your own spot test using both the orange juice and the peel oil.. .

Darn... but I heard that apples aren't safe... like they need to be organic for it to be safe and those are so expensive.

Like what Travis said... could it be that I am just allergic to the peel? I use my right hand to peel into the orange and so there's more juice on my right hand and it would often crawl into my wrist. Is it possible that the combo of peel and juice is what had made me react.

I tried to put some orange juice on my left wrist to see if something would react but nothing... I am now thinking that the rash probably only happens when I am "making" the orange juice.

Click to expand...

Could be. I've had skin sensitivity reaction a few times to something with strong 'orange oil' in it, but not aware of anything similar with oranges generally, and eat and drink oranges/juice. If you don't notice any other symptoms from OJ, you could avoiding the skin oils while peeling them, and see if that solves the problem?